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Ferris State quarterback Reggie Bell dropped back at the 30-yard line and heaved a prayer into the end zone with five seconds left Saturday.

The junior was looking to lead the Bulldogs, who were ranked No. 7 and 3-0 at the time, to their third comeback win in as many weeks.

In reality, the moment was an unfamiliar spot for the Los Angeles native to be in because he never had a chance to be the hero when he played for Eastern Michigan the previous two seasons. In fact, while he was with the Eagles, he struggled even to stay on the field.

"I loved the team at Eastern," said Bell, who transferred to Ferris this past spring. "I actually love the school, too. I wasn't clicking with the coaches too well. I didn't agree with a lot of things going on with the coaches. I didn't like the path they were going down and the decisions they were making. I didn't agree with it too much."

That's because Bell was in the middle of a dreaded coaching change.

Former Eagles coach Ron English, who was 11-46 before the athletic department fired him Nov. 8, 2013, after he used "wholly inappropriate" language to address his team during a meeting, recruited and signed Bell out of Susan Miller Dorsey High School.

The dual-threat QB, who earned a two-star rating from 247Sports while he played in high school, liked the allure of leaving California.

He also loved how EMU gave him an opportunity to participate with its track and field team, too — specifically, to compete in the hurdles.

During his senior year at Dorsey, he won the 110-meter hurdles event four times while taking first in the 300 hurdles twice.

"The 110 hurdles was really what I was the best at," Bell said. "I was the City Champion in the high hurdles and No. 1, at that point, in the state, and I was No. 8 in the country in 110 hurdles."

However, following English's departure, the Eagles hired Chris Creighton from Drake, an FCS team in Iowa. Creighton's staff had a different approach to coaching than English, and they thought it was in Bell's best interest to focus on football and not join the track team.

"I wanted to run at Eastern," Bell said. "But they had a coaching change, so they told me I couldn't run anymore."

That decision was the first by the Eagles that left Bell wondering "What if?" while he was breaking out as a redshirt freshman.

In Creighton's first season, Bell started eight games and saw action in 10, finishing as one of only seven QBs in the nation to lead their respective teams in both rushing and passing yards. He threw for 1,297 yards and nine TDs and rushed for another 562 yards and four scores.

He racked up a few player of the week and year awards from the Mid-American Conference and national media publications. He set school records for being the first Eagle to rush for two 70-plus yard TDs in a single game. He also totaled the second-most yards of total offense in one game in team history after finishing with 510 against Ball State on Nov. 22, 2014.

At the year-end banquet, the university's gridiron club named him the offensive newcomer of the year, despite him sharing playing time with backup quarterback Brogan Roback, who appeared in three games.

The following season, Bell suffered a fractured jaw injury in the season opener against Old Dominion and missed seven games. Roback stepped in and made 10 starts during the 1-11 campaign.

By the time Bell returned, the starting job was Roback's, but Creighton elected to rotate both QBs in games to give opponents different looks. Bell is a shifty runner, who can make plays with his feet, while Roback is more of a pro-style pocket passer.

Bell said he couldn't find a rhythm with his play while rotating with Roback.

"It's really frustrating, especially when you had a rhythm going, and you know you can keep going," he said. "Then they would put somebody else completely in after you'd have the groove with the offense. You'd sit a whole drive. You never know how long that drive will last, and then with the defense playing, you have a chance to get cold.

"It's really frustrating when you know you can keep the rhythm going on offense and really keep pounding the defense."

Bell said he had enough of the two-QB system during the Eagles' 28-17 loss to UMass on Nov. 14, the second-to-last game of the season.

Roback started and played the whole game behind center, finishing 26 of 42 passing for 260 yards and two TDs. Bell never saw the field.

That's when he knew it was time to leave.

"That was the moment. It really was," Bell said. "We played UMass, and I got injured last year. They kept rotating the quarterbacks, and I didn't like being rotated. I'm not with the whole rotating thing. I didn't like that. I didn't know what direction they were going to go.

"It was best for me to leave."

EMU later granted Bell his release from his scholarship, and he began looking for schools that needed a running QB. He eventually came in contact with Ferris coach Tony Annese, who had led the Bulldogs to the No. 1 ranking in Division II a year ago and coached Jason Vander Laan, a two-time Harlon Hill Trophy winner.

"I got into contact with Coach Annese, and we clicked right away," Bell said. "We talked about the offense, and I agreed with his philosophy. I took a visit. I loved it here at Ferris and the whole vibe I was getting from being here. It's all love and positivity. I saw myself here, and that's what made me make my final decision to come to Ferris."

Bell signed up for classes and was on hand when the Bulldogs, who were 11-1 and lost its only game in the second round of the playoffs a year ago, began spring practice. However, Bell wasn't an immediate starter, nor was the incoming junior the top QB on the depth chart.

During the spring game, Trevor Bermingham, a fifth-year senior who backed up Vander Laan, was 8 of 11 passing for 178 yards and two TDs and looked ahead of the pack to be the Bulldogs' starter in the fall.

Bell struggled early on in the exhibition, finishing 9 of 16 for 69 yards. But he improved toward the end of the game and even rifled the game-winning TD, a 6-yard pass, to Marquel Hines with 27 seconds left.

After his sluggish start at Ferris, Bell knew he had to improve.

He began making friends with his teammates, specifically the running backs and receivers, and worked with them in the off-season.

"Shak (Shakur Sanders) and my roommates, those guys and I clicked right away, and those were the guys I worked with right away, " he said. "We're pretty in sync right now with what I have to do, as far as route running, timing and stuff like that."

But that wasn't the only thing Bell did to improve his game.

"I got into the film room more," he said. "I wasn't as familiar with the playbook as I am now. I had to get the playbook and meet with the veteran receivers and running backs and build that bond.

"We had to gel together and get chemistry. We had to meet a lot and get the playbook down, knowing where I needed to go with the ball."

By time fall camp started, Bell was ready to make an impact.

He worked hard in drills, studied film and eventually made his case to become the starter for Ferris' opener, a 41-0 win over Ohio Dominican on Sept. 1. That game saw Bell lead the Bulldogs in both passing (154 yards, two TDs) and rushing (102 yards, one TD) in his first start.

"Fall camp went a lot smoother than in the spring," Bell said. "I knew what I was doing out there. That's where the battle for the position began. I came in a lot smoother than I was playing in spring ball.

"I could definitely see the chemistry getting better. Now the chemistry gets better and better in each game, and we're gelling and getting better and better. But the one thing we have to do, though, is execute right away instead of warming ourselves up."

That was a reference to Ferris' slow starts offensively during its second and third games. In both outings, Bell had to lead his team back in the final seconds to ensure the Bulldogs a 3-0 start to the season — both games were against lesser opponents.

Against Michigan Tech on Sept. 10, Bell threaded a long pass to Malik Taylor and then a couple of shorter throws to put the Bulldogs into scoring position. Kicker Wyatt Ford then booted a 36-yard field goal with 7 seconds left to give his team a 30-28 win on the road.

One week later, during a Sept. 17 matchup at Northwood, Bell led his team on a 53-yard final drive that he capped by throwing a 5-yard TD pass to Jajuan Pollock, who raced into the end zone as time in regulation expired, giving Ferris the win, 27-26.

Ferris followed up those two comeback wins by outscoring fifth-ranked Ashland, 31-17, before halftime Saturday at Top Taggart Field.

Ferris State quarterback Reggie Bell passes during Saturday’s game against Ashland at Top Taggart Field.(Photo: Brandon Folsom, Special to the Detroit Free Press)

However, the Bulldogs struggled offensively in the second half and allowed the Eagles to storm back and take the lead, 39-31.

Bell had one final chance to be the hero — to drive the Bulldogs downfield and score the game-tying touchdown and two-point conversion.

With under a minute left, he tossed two passes to get the offense down to the 30-yard line and set up one final play.

“The mind-set was to do whatever we can to get into the end zone,” Bell said. “We were going to go for two, and then it’s overtime. We were pretty confident that we were going to do that. The mind-set was to get the ball into the end zone any way that we can.”

Bell lofted a Hail Mary to the near corner of the end zone, but an Ashland defender instead batted the pass out of Sanders' hands.

The time had expired, and the Eagles had won.

“That last particular play was to get the ball to the end zone and give our guy a chance,” said Bell, who threw for 261 yards and ran for another 134 but didn't score any TDs. “I rolled out, saw Shak and gave him a chance. Unfortunately, they made a great play on the ball.”

Ferris went from No. 7 in the nation to 13th at 4-1, while Bell was unable to complete his third straight comeback.

But Bell is now the full-time starter of a nationally-ranked program, no longer sharing his QB duties with an Eagles team that finished 1-11 a year ago.

He's happier, too.

"It's definitely a huge change," Bell said. "You can definitely tell the difference with the intensity of being on a team that's ranked from a team that goes 1-11. You saw that with the game-winning drive at Northwood. Nothing against Eastern, but you could see when we got down, guys didn't really have as much fight or will.

"Here, you play hard until the clock hits four 0s."

But what happens when track season starts next spring?

"Coach Annese told me I can run," said Bell, laughing. "It's a perfect opportunity for me. Football will always come first, and that’s something Coach Annese and I will discuss in the spring.

"Football will come first, but we’ll have to put a schedule together with the track coach."